Flu season typically peaks in Feburary, but many have already endured the exception that proves that rule
There’s no shame in getting off to a slow start the morning after a night of reveling in New Year’s Eve fun. Molly Kimball had a rough beginning to the new year as well, but it wasn’t because of a hangover.
There was no “hair of the dog” for this Tracy resident. Count Kimball and two of her young children — 5-yearold Meg and infant Reid III. — as just three of the thousands of Minnesotans who have seen (and felt) firsthand the devastating impact of the aggressive flu bug buzzing around seemingly everywhere.
“It was hell,” said Kimball, the mother of four young ones and wife to Reid, who is currently dealing with major back issues.
That’s the simplest way Kimball could describe how her family rang in the new year. Things got bad right away on Jan. 1. Kimball said she could tell a cold was coming on that Thursday morning.
But that night, she took a turn for the worse.
“Meg, all along, had had a runny nose and a little cough, but no fever up to that day,” Kimball said. “By Saturday morning, we were in the emergency room.”
Kimball took Meg and baby Reid to Sanford Tracy on Jan. 3. Although Reid’s fever that was being held in check with Tylenol, his mother wanted a doctor to address another issue with the little one.
“That’s when they diagnosed him with influenza A, so we obviously all had it,” said Kimball, whose symptoms included terrible body aches, on-and-off fever, headache and non-stop coughing. Because she is nursing, any over-the-counter treatments were off the table.
“I lost my voice completely,” she said. “It was horrible. The kids did not seem as bad. I couldn’t take anything for body aches or anything; I was exhausted. Even holding the baby — I had no strength. Meg did OK as long as she had Motrin on board.”
Kimball said she didn’t start to feel better until last Wednesday, but she still hadn’t regained her voice.
“You’d go for a little while and think,’I’m good,’ and then it would just hit you again,” she said. “I thought maybe we had COVID.”
For whatever reason, neither Kimball’s husband, or her other daughters, Hazel and Elsie, never suffered a single symptom, “which is unbelievable,” Kimball said.
Elishia Christians, a Family Nurse Practitioner at Sanford Tracy, said the reason the flu seems so bad now is because the H3N2 virus has mutated. Vaccines, although still worth getting, are not as effective since a normal immune system is not familiar with the mutations.
“It is common for viruses to change,” said Christians. “This H3N2 has protein changes making the influenza vaccine less effective since vaccines are made ahead of the season based on previous strains and seasons. Any living thing wants to stay alive and viruses are no different, so they change to try to keep us on our toes.”
There are two ways viral infections change. One is called Antigenic Drift, the other is Antigenic Shift. A drift happens over time and a shift is sudden. Antigenic drift is common, whereas antigenic shift is not. There have been four flu pandemics in the past 100 years.
“Influenza and other viral infections are common in the winter months because we spend more time indoors with one another,” Christians said. “They are around all year but spread easier given large groups indoors increasing the likelihood of exposure. We are going to school, working indoors, sporting events, other indoor events, traveling in planes.”
The Kimballs weren’t the only family hurting this holiday season. Marie Schreier can certainly sympathize with her fellow mom. She, too, had to play nurse for her kids, and her husband, Mike, recently underwent an hours-long knee surgery after falling off a ladder and tearing his ACL and meniscus right before Thanksgiving.
What made matters worse for the Schreiers is that they weren’t even home when the bug bit. The family had traveled 12 hours to Pinckneyville, IL, to spend the holidays with her mother. Needless to say, this was one holiday to forget for the family of five.
“We all got sick when we got there; we had the stomach flu before leaving,” Schreier said. “We had a bad holiday. We had the stomach bug over Christmas and influenza over New Year’s. We hadn’t been sick all year, and then it all hit us at once. And we managed to give it to my family before we left.”
Schreier’s 5-year-old son, Eli, got the worst of it. He fell ill on Dec. 30, and his fever continued off-and-on for days, into the new year. He lost his appetite for about a week, but was able to return to school at St. Mary’s when classes resumed on Jan. 5.
“He was the sickest; Emma had a terrible cough and a little bit of a fever, and the rest of us had congestion and were really tired,” Schreier said. “Claire, Mike and I never had much of a fever; if we did, it was low-grade. But it wasn’t a great holiday experience.”
St. Mary’s School Dean of Students and Staff Justin Condelli said the overall impact at the school has been “fairly minimal.”
At Tracy Area Public Schools, there have been two documented influenza cases, one in each building, last week; both students were sick prior to returning from Christmas break. There were 19 health-related absences this past Monday — 11 at the elementary school and eight at the high school.
TAPS Supt. Chad Anderson said the district has not seen an influx in flu at this point.
According to the Minnesota Department of Health, as of Jan. 8, 2026, Minnesota had a 28.3% positive rate with 2,946 hospitalizations, with the most common type being the influenza A (H3N2). The positive rate has decreased from Dec. 31, 2025, but hospitalizations have increased.
There is a decreased number of people receiving influenza vaccines today, Christians said, another factor contributing to an unprecedented flu season. This season, the influenza vaccine rate is only at 40%.
Christians said anyone can get sick with flu, even healthy people, and serious problems related to flu can happen to anyone at any age, although some people are at higher risk of developing serious flu-related complications. This includes people 65 years and older, people of any age with certain chronic medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease); pregnant women and children younger than 5 years; but especially those younger than 2.
People experiencing warning signs should obtain medical care right away, Christians said. For children, some of those signs are fast breathing or trouble breathing, bluish lips or face, ribs pulling in with each breath, chest pain, severe muscle pain (child refuses to walk), dehydration (no urine for eight hours, dry mouth, no tears when crying), and a fever above 104 degrees Fahrenheit that is not controlled by fever-reducing medicine.
Christians said receiving the influenza vaccine is very important. Since it is not an active vaccine, it cannot cause an illness. The goal of the vaccine is to reduce the severity of infection and prevent hospitalization or death.
The flu vaccine covers three types of influenza: H1N1, H3N2 and Influenza B. Prevention includes hand washing, covering one’s cough, and staying home when ill (have a fever, diarrhea, vomiting, coughing severely – until these symptoms resolve for 24 hours on their own without medications helping them).
The nasal spray vaccine is a live virus vaccine that is only used in certain circumstances.
Like it or not, COVID is still a concern for certain groups of people, Christians said.
“If you have underlying health conditions, you can become very ill from COVID,” she said. “The severity has improved though due to immunizations and heard immunity.”
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